Fundamentals of the Equity Market (2013)

By: United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)

The equity market is a prominent member of the capital market and encapsulates the mechanisms and conventions that exist for the issuance of, investing in, and the trading of marketable equity instruments that represent the permanent or semi-permanent capital of the issuers (companies). The equity market plays a significant role in the economy. It provides perpetual capital and long-term capital. Needless to say, financial globalization has increased significantly during the last decade. The increased integration of financial systems has involved greater cross-border capital flows, tighter links among financial markets, and greater presence of foreign financial firms around the world. For this very reason, it is important to comprehend the principal underpinnings of the equity market and how it links to or differentiates from other members of the capital market, i.e. long-term debt market and the money market. This course is a primer on the equity market and will build the knowledge and understanding of the participants through compact and practical training modules on the one hand and concrete real-world discussions on the other.